


Too Tender to Know Change

by the_rck



Category: The Pretender (TV)
Genre: Amnesia, Gen, Post "Island of the Haunted", ruthlessness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 01:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9358016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: There are things Jarod could do and won't. There are things Miss Parker can do and will.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trobadora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trobadora/gifts).



> Title from Sonnet XXXV in Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
> 
> Written for Fandom Stocking 2016.

Jarod kept calling her 'Mrs Parker.' When she corrected him, he nodded agreeably and then promptly forgot. The idea that her mother had been dead for decades somehow couldn’t find any sort of grip in his mind. She looked like Catherine Parker and not at all like the child he remembered.

She wasn’t sure how long she could keep hiding him. She wasn’t sure why she was hiding him at all. As he currently was, he would offer no resistance if she returned him to the Centre, and Raines— who was _not_ her father— would let her live. He’d promised rewards beyond that, but she believed in none of them.

Except, she did know why. She just hadn’t quite gotten to the point of committing the betrayals involved. If Jarod remained as he was, he might never need to know. If he recovered… She’d deal with that if she had to.

At least, at eleven, Jarod hadn’t thought that being locked in was something abnormal.

Broots knew everything, but without discussing it at all, they had decided not to tell Sydney. She trusted Sydney for many things, but for dealing with a Jarod who thought he was eleven— Well, eleven year old Jarod would have done anything for Sydney, including refusing to cooperate if Sydney told him he shouldn’t.

Sydney would certainly have objected to the plan Miss Parker was forming. He’d see this as a chance to protect child Jarod in a way he hadn’t but wished he had.

Broots had seen the possibility first. Miss Parker had been too tangled in the things that stopped Jarod from acting, but she could see a way forward now. Jarod as he was now wouldn’t understand that destroying the Centre and everything behind it might mean never seeing his parents again. He still believed his parents had died in a plane crash. He wouldn’t understand that people would die because of his ideas or that some might end up worse than dead.

Jarod was still sharp, still able to sim. She and Broots had tested that. Neither of them wanted to commit to a rebellion that was doomed from the start. It might work.

Miss Parker sat down across the table from Jarod and smiled at him. "I have a sim for you, Jarod. There are some very bad people doing some very bad things. I need to know how to stop them."

Jarod smiled back.


End file.
